On the surface of it, these two types of hacks don't seem related. The Twitter attacks, according to a report at Gizmodo, appear to have been the work of a New England DJ, while Apple have said the attack on their system was the result of a huge malware project. Last night Mandiant, a computer security firm, published a report linking hacks of technology companies and news organizations to a sophisticated wing of the Chinese military based in Shanghai. The differences in scale, sophistication and effect are enormous.

However, given the sudden increase in the frequency of the hacks, it seems that we have reached a watershed moment. 2013 is looking to be the year that companies will be forced to take cyber security seriously.